Students are eligible to register if they are either continuing BYU students or new students who have been notified of acceptance from the appropriate admissions office for the admitted semester or term.

Continuing student status ends when students graduate or when they go an entire academic year without enrolling for credit and staying enrolled beyond the add/drop deadline for one semester or term. An academic year begins with fall semester and continues through the next summer term. No prior notification to the university is required. Students who have lost continuing student status must be readmitted through Admission Services before they can register for classes again.

Students must be in good honor code standing to register and to continue enrollment at BYU.

Non-admitted students may register for credit courses through certain BYU Continuing Education programs (i.e., BYU Independent Study, BYU Evening Classes, and BYU Salt Lake Center) subject to the requirements of each program. Good honor code standing is required for non-admitted students registering for credit courses through BYU Continuing Education programs, except for BYU Independent Study.

Registration instructions and deadlines are listed for each semester and term on the website http://registrar.byu.edu.

Registration for fall and winter semesters is based on a priority system that allows admitted, eligible students to begin registration according to the number of credit hours completed. Priority begins with graduate students and seniors and then is given to juniors, sophomores, and freshmen, based on credit hours completed. Post-baccalaureate, non-degree-seeking graduates will be given access after continuing freshmen. All newly admitted freshmen for fall semester will register in a separate priority registration. New freshman beginning winter semester will be assigned to the last registration date regardless of college credit. All other students (transfer, former, graduate, and continuing students) will have their total completed credit hours taken into account to calculate their priority registration date.

Students may add and drop classes up through the add/drop deadline of each semester or term (the sixth business day). A withdraw date will be indicated on the transcript if a student withdraws from all classes after the add/drop deadline.

Each class has a registration method assigned by the academic department that determines whether or not a permission-to-add code is required. The options are (1) add online anytime without code (“O”); (2) add online until the first day of class, permission-to-add code required thereafter (“F”); (3) permission-to-add code always required (“S”). The registration system will notify students if a permission-to-add code is required. Instructors or designated department staff are responsible for providing permission-to-add codes to students.

A student cannot be registered for more than one section of the same class in the same semester or term unless it is an R-suffix class (e.g., Music 160R).

If departments require that a student be registered for a course after the add/drop deadline, then they may send a request signed by the department chair to the Registrar’s Office.

Waitlists

Departments may allow students to add themselves to a waitlist if a class is full. Waitlists for first day registration method classes expire the morning of the first day of the semester or term, and waitlists for online registration method classes expire the evening of the fourth calendar day of the semester or term. If a department changes the class registration method to “permission-to-add” code only at any time, the waitlist will expire. Students cannot waitlist a grouping of classes (e.g., envelopes). Once a seat becomes available, the first student on the waitlist will automatically be added to the class. If students no longer want to be on a waitlist, they must remove their names from the waitlist in the registration system. Except for R-suffix classes, students can waitlist only one section of the same class. If students are registered for another section of a class they have waitlisted, it will be dropped if the waitlisted section is added. Students who have registration holds, do not meet class limitations, or would exceed maximum credit hour limits will be skipped in the waitlist. If a waitlist is long enough to justify another class section, the relevant department may decide to add another section but must inform students of the newly created section.

Prerequisites

Departments may require prerequisite courses. Prerequisites qualify students to be admitted to more advanced classes offered by a department. Students are not allowed to register for courses for which they have not met the prerequisites unless an exception is made by the department or instructor.

An eligible undergraduate student in good academic standing may register for as many as eighteen credit hours in any one semester or nine credit hours in a term. College advisement centers may authorize a student who has demonstrated superior academic ability to register for a maximum of twenty-one credit hours in a semester or eleven credit hours in a term. This authorization is given by the advisor flagging approval on a student’s record. The student will not be able to register for the additional credit hours until the first day of the semester or term. Registering for classes offered through BYU Continuing Education (sections marked evening or Salt Lake Center) or auditing classes counts toward the total credit hours allowed. Exceptions to these rules may be granted by the university registrar.

A graduate student may take up to twenty-two credit hours in a semester or eleven credit hours in a term. For exceptions to go over hours, graduate students must consult with Graduate Studies.

Credit hours for courses that extend over the spring and summer terms will count in spring term enrollment.

An undergraduate student who registers for twelve or more credit hours in a semester or six or more credit hours in a term is a full-time student. Registration for 9.0 to 11.5 credit hours per semester or 4.5 to 5.5 credit hours per term is three-quarter-time status. Registration for 0.5 to 8.5 credit hours in a semester or 0.5 to 4.0 credit hours in a term is part-time status. International students and students receiving financial assistance may be required to be enrolled full-time. Credit hours for classes that extend through the spring and summer terms count in the spring term enrollment. For graduate students, 8.5 credits per semester is full-time, and 4.5 credits is half-time.

Graduate students (masters and doctoral students) who are enrolled for at least two credit hours per semester and who can be certified by their department as being engaged full-time in pursuit of their degrees can petition for graduate full-time status. Requests for such an exception should be directed to Graduate Studies.

The university may place a hold on a student’s records that will block registration privileges. The hold will be indicated on the registration system. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the appropriate office to clear any holds before attempting to register for classes.

A Leave of Absence occurs when a student does not register for any classes or drops all registered classes by the add/drop deadline for any registration period (i.e., term 1, term 2, or semester-length) within a semester or term. A student cannot miss an entire academic year and continue at BYU without reapplying.

International students must obtain clearance from International Student and Scholar Services before taking a leave of absence.

Students should consider the following before taking a leave of absence:

• Ecclesiastical Endorsement: Students must have a current ecclesiastical endorsement to register for subsequent semesters. To complete this requirement, the applicant’s bishop must submit the continuing student ecclesiastical endorsement form found online at https://endorse.byu.edu.
• Scholarship: The continuing student scholarship application deadline for fall, winter, and spring/summer scholarships is February 1, regardless of BYU attendance.
• Federal Loan Repayment: Student loans have a loan repayment grace period of six months beginning on the date that the borrower drops below at least half-time enrollment. If a student leave of absence extends beyond six months, loan repayments will likely begin.
• Suspension and Dismissal: Suspended and dismissed students should consult with the Academic Support Office (see http://aso.byu.edu).
• Enrollment Requirements: New freshman, transfer, and former students must be enrolled through the add/drop deadline the first semester or term to which they have been admitted.
• Missionary Service: A leave of absence may be taken directly prior to a missionary deferment (consecutive semesters). Following a mission, applicants must enroll at Brigham Young University within a given time period, as noted at the Enrollment Services website: https://enrollment.byu.edu/missionaries.
• Registration and Other Holds: Students should resolve any university holds that may prohibit their ability to register or receive other university services.

Students who wish to audit a class (i.e., take a course without receiving any credit for it) must add the class with a permission-to-audit code within the first six class days of a semester or term. Audited classes do not appear on transcripts for completed semesters, do not count for enrollment verification purposes, and do not count towards financial aid or scholarship eligibility. However, audit hours do count toward maximum hours per semester and tuition charges. Students must be officially enrolled either for credit or audit to be eligible to attend class.

Students may take university-level BYU Independent Study courses at any time and can take up to a full year to complete a course (i.e., across standard semesters and terms). The BYU Independent Study course credits count toward graduation requirements; however, these courses are not eligible for federal financial aid under any circumstances.

In general, the expectation for undergraduate courses is three hours of work per week per credit hour for the average student who is appropriately prepared; much more time may be required to achieve excellence. These three hours may include one hour of lecture plus two hours of work outside class, three hours in a laboratory with little outside work, or any other combination appropriate to a particular course.

The university schedules examination preparation and final examination periods. A final examination period occurs at the end of each semester and term. The examination period is preceded by an examination preparation day, which gives time for conscientious review, study, and synthesis of the semester’s work. The examination preparation and the examination periods are firmly scheduled parts of the semester; students must not make plans that interfere with these important academic activities. See Final Examination Policy.

Students who choose to withdraw from a class must do so officially. Students who do not officially withdraw before the published deadline will receive a failing grade. When a student withdraws from a class, a “W” will be posted on the student’s transcript (a “W” does not affect the student’s grade-point average). To withdraw from classes for extenuating circumstances after the withdraw deadline, students may petition for an exception to university policy through the Registrar’s Office. Withdrawing from classes may impact students’ access to other areas of campus where students are required to be enrolled in a certain number of credit hours, such as the following:

• housing
• financial aid
• scholarships
• student health plan
• employment
• counseling services
• computer labs
• exercise facilities

The university reserves the right to assign a failing grade for academic dishonesty reasons even if the student is able to withdraw himself or herself from the class before the failing grade has been assigned.

Discontinuance is defined as withdrawing from all classes for the current semester or term and means a student is no longer considered currently enrolled. Newly admitted students (new freshman, transfer, and former students) who discontinue from the semester or term to which they were admitted prior to the add/drop deadline will lose their admission status and will need to reapply to attend a future semester.

Continuing students who discontinue from a major semester (fall or winter) will have that semester counted as a leave of absence. Discontinuance may also impact students’ access to other areas of campus where students are required to be enrolled in a certain number of credit hours, such as the following:

• housing
• financial aid
• scholarships
• student health plan
• employment
• counseling services
• computer labs
• exercise facilities

Please note that students who leave the university under emergency conditions and do not return are still responsible to discontinue before the discontinuance deadline. They should contact Enrollment Services Counseling as soon as possible. For extenuating circumstances that arise after the discontinuance deadline, students may be eligible for an incomplete contract. See Academic Credit, Grades, and Records Policy.

BYU students who are enrolled and then called up for armed services active duty are eligible for full tuition refunds.

Students are expected to attend classes for which they are registered. Each class instructor may determine the relationship of class attendance to the final grade for the course. Faculty should tell students what relationship attendance has to the final grade for the course, but students must take responsibility for their actions. Notification to teachers of emergency absences (e.g., death in the family, serious illness) is the student’s responsibility. Students must be officially enrolled either for credit or audit to be eligible to attend class.